2 . You might remember watching Tweety and Sylvester from the Looney Tunes cartoons while growing up. Every time the cat Sylvester would try to eat the bird Tweety, the latter would call its owner and complain about the cat, just as a human would. In reality, several birds are able to mimic (模仿) speech. The most common bird known to do this is the parrot.

Studies have shown that the young birds learn and memorize species-specific songs by mimicking vocalizations (发声) of their father, starting as early as a week after birth. If separated from the father during this sensitive (感觉敏锐的) period, young birds may develop very strange songs.

It is common sense that a singer with a broader vocal range (范围) will be more successful than one with a smaller vocal range. Similarly, male songbirds with the vocal learning ability to learn broader types of songs enjoy higher chances of attracting attention of female. Therefore, such songbirds started achieving broader song learning skills as time went by. Eventually, they ended up with vocal skills so broad that they could not just learn songs from other males in their species, but songs from different species too.

Parrots have been kept as pets for thousands of years, and are probably the most famous mimics. Vocal mimicry in parrots has often caught human’s attention, since they can mimic the difficult vocalizations of human speech learned from their caretakers. The reason for this is not to attract mates. Parrots raised as pets often mimic humans to establish social connections.

In a study on an African Grey parrot, scientists observed that it could not just mimic human speech, but could also learn several hundreds of words and their meanings, recognize objects by names, and even count! The study has made scientists think that parrots are not simply mimicking, but that their vocal ability is very similar to that of human speech. This is a huge discovery, as humans are the only animals known to be capable of using “language” to date.

3 . Wildlife Preservation Volunteer Programs

Elephant Preservation Volunteer Program in Nepal

This program is suitable for active volunteers who love animals and want to care for the well-being of elephants. No experience is needed as you’ll be working closely with placement staff. The elephant shelter takes in elephants that have medical issues and require care.

Volunteers are accommodated in a local hotel. You should expect to share a room with one other volunteer.

Marine (海洋的) Preservation Volunteer Program in Croatia

This program is suitable for physically fit volunteers who are experienced divers (潜水员). You will use your diving skills to collect marine waste from the bottom of the seabed. You will work within a team on sorting waste out and handing it to the recycling centre.

Volunteers will be accommodated in a hotel. Local workers will clean the accommodation throughout the week.

Victoria Falls Wildlife Volunteering in Zimbabwe

This program is suitable for animal-loving volunteers who want to contribute to protecting amazing creatures and their habitats. Activities include animal tracking, camping out on the reserve and supporting other partner organizations.

Volunteers are accommodated within private rooms at the preservation centre. The accommodation has an open-air area where volunteers can socialize.

Amazon Jungle Preservation Volunteer Program in Peru

This program is suitable for volunteers who care about the environment, like working hard and don’t mind getting their hands dirty. It’s a great opportunity if you’re looking to reset your life by getting out of your comfort zone. You’ll also be developing personally and professionally.

Volunteers are accommodated in local people’s houses. There are running showers but you can expect water to he cold.

4 . Learning a new language holds many benefits — it gains you respect, improves your self-confidence, and opens up new opportunities to make new friends from different cultures. Here are four language learning apps available that will teach you the language(s) of your choice.

Drops is a popular language learning app with more than 40 languages. Interesting drawings and cartoons, as well as interactive games, are used to improve memory. Drops is perhaps better for expanding your vocabulary because it does not touch on important matters such as grammar and punctuation.

Rating: ★★★★★

Price: Free.

Learn Laugh Speak is a digital English language learning app for individuals who wish to improve their communication skills through pronunciation training. Children from 5 to 11 can also get a head-start practicing speaking skills through 6,000 interactive gamified classes.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Price: $24.99/month.

The term “language learning” is yet misleading when describing the app. Calling it a “Language Exchange app” is closer to the mark. Instead of offering structured lessons, Hello Talk connects more than 40 million users speaking over 150 different languages who then teach each other their native languages.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Price: Free with in-app offers.

As the name indicates, TripLingo is primarily aimed at travelers who do not need to be fluent conversationalists. TripLingo focuses on practical phrases and words commonly used by travelers. In fact, TripLingo is much more than just a convenient phrasebook. It offers various features specifically designed to ensure trouble-free trips abroad.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Price: $ 19.99/month.

5 . Some places are to be appreciated and visited during the winter months, with fresh layers of snow transforming already beautiful landscapes into wonderlands. Read on to discover these winter resorts around the world that are enough to wake you up.

The falls are especially impressive in winter. It has two impressive layers, reaching up to 36 feet and 69 feet, and it’s quite dramatic to see the golden light reflected off its steep water at sunset. If you want to catch a sight of the polar lights on your trip, you can also see it from September to mid-April in Iceland.

Tromso is a charming fishing village and energetic university town. Located on the Norwegian Sea off the northern coast of Norway, Tromso is particularly suitable for winter holidays as it is a popular gateway to the Arctic Circle. Surrounded by picturesque glaciers (冰川), the winter landscape of this region is unforgettable. You can also take part in many guided tours designed around the local Sami culture and maritime history.

As Canada’s first national park, Banff National Park offers excellent views of the snow- covered Canadian Rockies. Located about two hours’drive from Calgary, the park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with cross-country skiing opportunities.

Crater Lake National Park, about a four-hour drive south of Portland, Oregon, is especially notable during the winter when the volcano lake is covered in snow. Crater Lake was formed as a result of a volcanic eruption some 7,700 years ago and is now a must-see for travelers seeking natural experiences, such as camping and cross-country skiing.

6 . For many years, Croatian-American recording artist Nenad Bach toured the world performing with famous musicians like Bono and Pavarotti. Everything came to a stop in 2010, however, when Nenad was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease — a progressive disease that affects a person’s movement.

“I love music,” he said. “When I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2010, I didn’t know what it was. Five years later, I couldn’t even play the guitar.”

One day, a friend of Nenad’s asked him to play ping-pong with him, and Nenad said yes. The effects were immediate and positive: he woke up the next day filled with a “desire to live”, and his physical and mental issues had improved. Encouraged, he kept playing.

For months he told everyone around him about how ping-pong was helping his Parkinson’s, but his praise fell on deaf ears. Finally, he took matters into his own hands and started hosting Ping Pong Parkinson’s events at the Westchester Table Tennis Center in Pleasantville, New York. Once the events attracted enough attention, he started an organization called Ping Pong Parkinson (PPP) in March 2017.

PPP hopes to encourage people living with Parkinson’s to play ping-pong for its benefits. In addition to promoting social connectivity, PPP also says that it increases neuroplasticity (神经可塑性) which creates new neural pathways in the brain. Nenad has seen evidence of this with his own eyes many times in the past years. He said that their “facial expression changes from when they arrive until they leave. In addition, some people start walking again.”

Nenad has made spreading the word about the power of ping-pong his new life’s work! He hopes others will take up the sport and see the same improvements he’s enjoyed since the first time he picked up a paddle (乒乓球拍).

10 . On an ordinary fossil-hunting (化石搜寻) outing, the members of the Hamilton Junior Naturalist Club might expect to find a few interesting shells (壳). But on a 2006 trip to Kawhia Harbour in New Zealand’s North Island, the students discovered the bones of a fossilized huge penguin (企鹅).

“We were expecting to find common fossils — shells, but were hugely shocked to find a huge animal skeleton (骨架) just lying on the beach,” said Mike Safey, president of the club.“Our club’s fossil expert Chris Templer realised immediately that we had discovered something hugely important. We made the decision to rescue this fossil, otherwise it would have been completely destroyed by weather.”

Researchers from Massey University used 3D scanning to compare the fossils to digitalized bones from all over the world. The penguin fossil is between 27.3 and 34.6 million years old, according to Daniel Thomas, a senior lecturer in Massey’s School of Natural andComputational Sciences. It is similar to Kairuku penguins but with longer legs. Researchers named it “Kairuku waewaeroa” for this characteristic.

Around 1.4 meters tall, this penguin was much huger compared to living penguins. We know that body size can be an important factor when thinking about ecology. How and why did penguins become huge, and why aren’t there any huge penguins left? Well-preserved fossils like Kairuku waewaeroa can help us answer these questions.

“The discovery is important for researchers, and it was also rewarding for the students who found it and encourages other young people to go out in nature and make their own discoveries. It reminds us that ancient New Zealand had many kinds of birds, and emphasizes how important New Zealand is for bird diversity today,” Thomas says.